Insurance

Insurance in Earthrise will allow people to safeguard their items against being looted. This being that in the event that they are killed by either a guard, or player in game. The individual will find that their items are delivered to them when they respawn in their new clone. However, when they do so, they will be required to purchase new insurance if they wish to keep the item(s) in question insured. This can be done in one of two ways. The first, is to maintain the same insurance that they had on the item previously, which will be an option presented when the player is resurrected by means of an all or nothing deal. (Either you insure all your items again, or you insure none). The second method involves going to the region where you first insured your item and adjusting the information at the insurance terminal. [1] Additionally, at these terminals; the player will find that they will have the option to choose what they wish to insure. This will allow for example, for one to individually insure their armor piecewise, as they insure it. [2]

What can be insured depends on two factors. The first being the technology involved in the creation of the item. Items that are created by a certain faction will be impossible to insure outside the are, or by another faction due to the monopoly which the creating faction may have on that technology. Next, the rarity of the resources will also affect the ability to insure items within Earthrise. There will also be some items which are not insurable due to the fact that the resources involved are so rare that it would simply not be worth the risk for the insurance department to bother with this.[3]

The cost to insure the item in question will also vary depending on a number of circumstances. The first being the cost of the item itself. Second, the legal status of the item; this being as it may technically be able to be insured, but for an inflated price. And third, the standings which you have with the party by which you are insuring with. The latter has been put in place to discourage a "penalty-free" change of faction, while also rewarding those who persist in their faction of choice. [4]

Insurance will also play a role in PvP. This being that rather than looting items which have been insured, the killer will instead obtain a portion of the money which the played killed used to insure the items. This also helps to combat inflation by keeping money circulating throughout the population of the game. Additionally money which is obtained by means collecting on the insurance of another player will not be lootable from that player in the event that they die after killing that individual.[5] If a group is responsible for the death of an individual. The reward for the kill will be evenly split among those members who have inflicted a certain amount of damage upon the target.[6]

This mechanic also affects larger scale PvP as well. An example for this would be in the war for contested areas of the map. This being because in large battles. There will be many individuals who die countless times over the period of the battle. This will result in a large loss of items and insurance money, and without the mechanism providing for credits when killing an insured individual, it would become possible for a rich guild to simply drag the battle on until their opponents run out of money, or the ability to insure themselves and thus their items eventually.[7]